How strange, that he cannot remember the day when hope for a dead past, became dreams of a living future.
Do you remember the pain in his words, as he wrote of regret, and loss? Written in a numb haze, as he fumbled for phrases that were never just right... As he sits and reads these thoughts now, he struggles to recall putting pen to paper. He fails to imagine that the author lives this very day.
Did you know that every day, the past faded just a little more, as the present became so much more important? His thoughts, bent in a new direction. They say that with no point of reference, you'll end up walking in a slow circle, eventually facing the same direction you started. Your touch was so gentle, so soft on his arm, that he didn't once realise you were guiding him. And he wonders if this was your intention, or simply instinct.
When he broke, when he shattered into a million pieces, he knew it was pointless to try to retrieve them all. And as the days passed, and he continued to break, he knew he was better off leaving those parts where they lay. That eventually the ground would swallow them and they'd be lost, but that he could live without them. 'So please', he breathes, 'please understand why I cry every time you hand me one of those pieces back, smelling of herbs and earth. Please understand why I gasp when they slide back into place, cleaned by the rain, and feeling like they belong again. Try to understand that even though I feel remade, I'm still growing used to this shape...because your touch has changed me'.
And he wonders, if you realise how much it meant to him...means to him...that you see strength in him, at the times he doubts its existence. That you see beauty when he has trouble finding it in himself.
He sits, and he dreams. He smiles softly, as he breathes in the aura he no longer can live without. As he tries to put thoughts into words, brow furrowed in concentration because he doesn't want to stumble as he explains. Because you've given him everything...but that's not what has given him the hope he thought was lost.
The greatest gift he's ever been given, is everything you took away.
thankyou so much for this title, and inspiration